Spring into Easter traditions

Easter Sunday is one of the important festivals in the Christian calendar that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Traditionally, Easter is filled with candy, bunnies, and eggs. Parents hide plastic eggs with special treats for children to find. Why do we have these traditions if they have nothing to do with Jesus?

According to realsimple.com, Eostre, a pagan goddess of spring and fertility, found a bird dying from the cold. Some say she turned the bird into a rabbit so its fur would keep it warm, but the rabbit still laid eggs like a bird.

In other stories stemming from that one, the rabbit painted eggs to give to Eostre in a way of thanks.

“Because of the difficulty of sharing these big issues in age-appropriate ways, sometimes we divert to the more lighthearted symbols of eggs and bunnies, hence the proliferation of Easter-egg hunts at churches,” Robin Knowles Wallace, the author of The Christian Year: A Guide for Worship and Preaching said.

According to BBCNews.com, it says the legend of the Easter Bunny became common because rabbits usually give birth to a large litter called kittens, so they became a symbol of new life. The Easter bunny lays, decorates, and hides the eggs for people to find.

Easter, usually 46 days after the beginning of Lent, is celebrated differently around the world: In England, they gift bonnets, baskets, and clothes; Germans do not work at all on Good Friday, Easter Saturday, or Easter Sunday, and Americans partake in Easter egg hunts and pictures with the Easter Bunny.

Whatever your tradition or belief is, there are millions who celebrate Easter the way you do.